Accomplice wins eleventh-hour reprieve from Texas death row

The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, yesterday made the rare decision to spare from execution a man who had been put on death row for being an accomplice to a 1996 murder in which he had been the getaway driver.

Kenneth Foster's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment just seven hours before he was scheduled to be given a lethal injection. The case had provoked protests from human rights groups in Texas and beyond because Foster had not committed the murder, but had been in the car, 24 metres (80ft) from where the shooting took place.

The governor acted after the state parole board voted 6-1 to recommend that Foster be spared execution, a recommendation that is in itself unusual.

The case has highlighted Texas's high level of execution, which remains far in excess of any other state. Foster would have been the third inmate to have been executed in three days.

The proceedings also cast a spotlight on the state's controversial "law of parties", a provision that allows for accomplices to be sentenced to death if they were conspiring to commit a felony, such as robbery, in which murder "should have been anticipated". Other states have similar laws, but rarely put them into practice.

The killing was committed on the night of August 15 1996, when Foster, together with a fellow gang member Mauriceo Brown and two other accomplices, drove around San Antonia on a robbing spree, holding up four people.

In the last robbery, Brown got out of the car, walked over to a man called Michael LaHood and demanded his wallet and car keys. When he failed to produce them, Brown shot LaHood through the eye.

Foster, 30, has acknowledged that his "knucklehead" friends were intent on crime, but denies intending to murder. "I was too much of a follower," he said.

Brown was put to death by lethal injection in July 2006. The other two accomplices are serving life sentences.